As part of our sustainability roadmap, we have committed to reducing our pressure on biodiversity by 30% by 2030. To support us in achieving this, in 2021 we joined Tandem Global, an international NGO (non-governmental organization) that works with businesses to encourage, promote, and certify biodiversity conservation.
The partnership provides a structured framework that helps us strengthen biodiversity management, evaluate measurable results, and identify opportunities for improvement. It supports locally relevant and practical conservation projects at our sites and across our value chain, without conflicting with operational or regulatory requirements.
Tandem Global is the only international conservation NGO focused exclusively on the private sector. Through partnerships, education, and voluntary certification, it promotes a collaborative and comprehensive approach to protecting species and habitats around the world.
Solvay is unique in integrating biodiversity in business relationships with customers as well as at an early stage in the development of focused projects. Solvay recognizes that we can start actions at home, but it’s also an imperative to implement actions across the value chain. It’s an understanding that others in all industry sectors should share.
The first chemical company in Brazil to receive Gold Certification
Biodiversity conservation activities at our Paulínia site date back to the 1990s. The decision to seek Tandem Global certification marked an important step forward, helping the site move from individual actions to a more integrated and robust management process.
Like an ISO-style framework for biodiversity, the certification protocol guided the site in bringing projects together, documenting their impact and assessing measurable results. It also helped evaluate the effects of community initiatives, identify opportunities for improvement, and develop new actions.
Following recommendations from Tandem Global experts, the site strengthened its existing Health, Safety and Environment action plans with a dedicated biodiversity conservation plan. The program is coordinated by the Sustainability team and implemented with support from Environment, Community Relations, Research and Innovation, Engineering, Emergency Control, site management, and Corporate Sustainability teams.
The higher score reflects the continued development of the program, with improvements to existing conservation projects and the introduction of new initiatives.
In 2021, and again in 2024, our Paulínia site was awarded the Gold Certification, making Solvay the first chemical company in Brazil to achieve Tandem Global’s highest certification rating. In 2024, the site achieved a 50% increase in its certification score compared with its first Gold Certification in 2021. The 16-million-square-meter site, crossed by two rivers, is located in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and supports a rich variety of wildlife.
Through activities such as reforestation, riverbank recovery, education, and the installation of a fish ladder to enable fish to migrate for breeding, the site has established itself as a wildlife haven. Our most recent reforestation project, which started in 2017, aims to plant 34,000 native seedlings over 15 years, establishing 15.5 hectares of forest.
Nearly 270 species of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and reptiles, and more than 90 plants, call the site home. It even serves as a refuge for endangered manned wolves and pumas.
The progress made at Paulínia offers a model for other Solvay sites and external projects, showing how structured management, cross-functional collaboration and long-term conservation action can help businesses and nature coexist.
